Le Comte, Louis. Memoirs and observations topographical, physical, mathematical, mechanical, natural, civil, and ecclesiastical. Made in a late journey through the Empire of China, and published in several letters. Particularly upon the Chinese pottery and varnishing; the silk and other manufactures; the pearl fishing; the history of plants and animals. Description of their cities and publick works; number of people, their language, manners and commerce; their habits, oeconomy, and government. The philosophy of Confucius. The state of Christianity, with many other curious and useful remarks. London: Pr. for Benj. Toke & Sam. Buckley, 1697. 8vo (20 cm; 8"). [12] ff., 527 [i.e., 543], [1] pp.; frontis. (port.), 3 plt. (2 fold.), fold. table.$1800.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 In the annals of early Westerners writing about China, the members of the Society of Jesus rank high for the quantity and quality of their writings. Louis Le Comte (1655–1728) began his novitiate in October 1671, was sent to China as a mathematician and a member of the 1687 Jesuit mission under the leadership of Jean de Fontaney, and returned to Europe in 1691. In 1696 he published his Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état présent de la Chine: It caused great debate within the Chinese Rites Controversy.

This is the first edition of the English translation of that work. It begins with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Emperor Cam-hy [i.e., K'ang-hsi] signed “M. Vander Gucht sculp.” The other plates depict “The throne of the emperor of China” (folding), “Outom-Chu, a tree in China,” “The observatory at Pekin” (folding), and a folding table of “All the words that form the Chinese tongue” (!!).

The work is a classic in the field of early European accounts of China, of missions to and in China, and of travel in general. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of this edition and may have done so for the work's sections on education in that kingdom.

Provenance: Signature of M. Middleton dated 1699 at top of the frontispiece. Later in the collection of the Pacific School of Religion (properly released).

Loskiel, George Henry. History of the mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America. In three parts.... Translated from the German by Christian Ignatius la Trobe. London: Pr. for the Brethren's Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel by John Stockdale, 1794. 8vo (21.3 cm, 8.4"). xii, 159, [1 (blank)], 234, [2 (blank)], 233, [1 (blank)], [22 (index and advertisement)] pp. (lacking map).$725.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 First English translation of Loskiel's highly informative account of missionary activities among Native American tribes “to the west of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia” (p. 2), dating between 1735 and 1787. Before recounting the mission's history, the author describes the customs, languages, and beliefs of various tribes, along with the flora and fauna prevalent in their territories. A great deal of Loskiel's information is taken from the accounts of Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg and David Zeisberger, the latter having served for over 40 years as a missionary in North America. Howes notes that the English edition “omits naming some former antagonists who had later become friendly.”

Provenance:Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription of James Beatty; two additional similar inscriptions dated 1825 and 1826. First preface page with genealogical annotations regarding the Beatty family, including remarks on the Staten Island Moravian Church's acquisition of John Beatty's land, and a note that the James Beatty who owned this volume was the son of that donor; all three generations of Beattys were strong supporters of the Moravian Church.

Miller,
Samuel. A sermon, delivered in the Middle
Church, New Haven, Con. [sic] Sept. 12, 1822, at the ordination of the
Rev. Messrs. William Goodell, William Richards, and Artemas Bishop, as evangelists
and missionaries to the heathen. Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1822. 8vo.
48 pp.$250.00

 William Richards (1793–1847) and Artemas Bishop 1795–1872) were sent to Hawaii, while William Goodel (1792–1867) headed for the Holy Land and adjacent regions. Pages [47]–48 contain a “Brief view of the missions under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, compiled October, 1822.”

 Shoemaker 9489. Not in Hill. Removed from a nonce volume. Light age-toning. “No.7” in ink (early 19th-century hand) at top of title-page. (27260)

 In the 18th century Mexico saw a birth of great biographical writing focusing on important figures in its history, especially its ecclesiastical history. Vasco de Quiroga (1470–1565) was an imposing and perhaps quixotic figure during the early post-Conquest decades. A learned man, he arrived in Mexico in 1531 as one of the first four judges of the high court (i.e., oidores) and became the first bishop of the far western province of Michoacan. In that “out of the way” region of Mexico he devoted himself to establishing European culture, ensuring fair treatment of the indigenous population, creating towns and cities, and building the first utopian community in the New World.

>

Not the least of Quiroga's accomplishments was the creation of two pueblo-hospitals for
native Americans, and appended and integral to this biography are his “Reglas, y ordenanzas para el gobierno de los Hospitales de Santa Fé de México, y Michoacàn,” which occupy the final 29 pages.

Historians still consider this to be the definitive biography of Quiroga. Theengraved portrait of him, handsome and from the burin of José Morales, adds a face to the words of the biographer and to the account of the deeds of the biographee.

 Third edition: “A description of the geography, geology, climate, productions of the country, and the numbers, manners, and customs of the natives.” The Rev. Samuel Parker (1779–1866) accompanied a fur-trading party west into what was then known as either Oregon Country or the Columbia District, under the sponsorship of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Here he describes the voyage (including a brief mention of the Mormons in Missouri), the region's natural history, and the degrees of interest in Christianity expressed by the Native Americans his party encountered — which last was his primary focus.

The volume opens with anoversized, folding map, engraved by M.M. Peabody, which Graff describes as “the earliest map of the Oregon interior with a pretense to accuracy”; includes an account of Parker'svoyage to Hawaii and Tahiti; and closes with avocabulary of Indian languages (Nez Perce, Klicatat, Calapooa, and Chenook). The plate depicts “Basaltic Formations on the Columbia River.”

 A great rarity of the Spanish Southwest, and still the dominant history of the region and of Jesuit activities there for the period from 1590 to 1644, the Historia provides an
unparalleled description of the upper part of Mexico and what is now the southwest region of the United States in the first half of the 17th century.

Andres Perez de Ribas (1576–1655) joined the Jesuit order in 1602 and arrived in Mexico in 1604 to proselytize among the native Indians. He was assigned to the area of northern Sinaloa, along the Pacific coast, and showed great ability from the start. Within a year he had baptized all the members of the Ahome nation and a large part of the Suaqui tribe, together about 10,000 natives. In 1617 he was instrumental in the pacification and conversion of the Yaqui tribe. Perez de Ribas was recalled to Mexico City in 1620 to work in the college there, eventually becoming a provincial of the school. He returned to Rome in 1643, undertaking the present history (which he completed in 1644) and other histories still found only in manuscript.

The work is divided into twelve parts, cumulatively giving a history of Jesuit activities in Mexico and the American Southwest, as well as providing a social and cultural examination of Indian customs, manners, rites, and superstitions. The first part of the book gives a history of Sinaloa and its people before the arrival of the Spanish. Parts two to eleven describe the arrival of the Spanish and the Jesuits in upper Mexico and their activities among the several tribes, including the conversion of the Hiaqui tribe, and the missions at Topia, San Andres, Parras, and Laguna Grande, as well as the conversion of the Tepeguanes and their subsequent rebellion. The final part discusses missionary activities in other parts of New Spain, includingan account of the martyrdom of nine Jesuit missionaries in Florida in 1566. There is also some information on Baja California.

“Obra de extremo interes acerca de las actividades de los jesuitas en Sinaloa, California y Florida” ( Palau). Of Perez de Ribas' Historia Bancroft writes: “It is a complete history of Jesuit work in Nueva Vizcaya, practically the only history the country had from 1590 to 1644, written not only by a contemporary author but by a prominent actor in the events narrated, who had access to all the voluminous correspondence of his order, comparatively few of which documents have been preserved. In short, Ribas wrote under the most favourable circumstances and made good use of his opportunities.”

Provenance: On the upper edges of the volume is the colonial-era marca de fuego of the Seminario Conciliar de México.

Perez de Ribas' work is exceedingly rare on the market. In forty years of bookselling, this is only the second copy we have handled. Very important and desirable.

 The first work in this volume is a handbook for priests with Nahuatl-speakers as parishioners; it contains a summary of “the five sacraments that ministers of the gospel administer here in America. With all the moral cases that occur among Indians.” Principally in Spanish, it has the prescribed responses of the parishioners in Nahuatl.

The second work is a Nahuatl grammar, this being its only colonial-era edition.

Pérez was a professor of Nahuatl at the Royal University of Mexico and one of the country's leading experts in the period 1675–1725.

Provenance: On the front fly-leaf the late 18th-century ownership inscription of Lic. Manuel Villa tellingwhere he purchased the book and its cost and imploring anyone who borrows it to return it; early 19th-century ownership signature on title-page of Jose Mariano Perdomo; 20th-century blind pressure-stamp on title-page of Sotomayor Vaqueiro.

At the rear of the volume is a manuscript note in a clear hand stating the Bachiller Jose Mariano Perdomo had completed two years of study of theology.

 A translation into Neo-Latin of Relaçaõ abbreviada da republica, que os religiosos Jesuitas . . . estabeleceraõ nos dominios ultramarinos [etc.] published at Lisbon in 1757, and written by or at the instance of Minister Pombal. It was part of this minister's platform to reduce the power of the Jesuits and to remove them from the Portuguese empire; and without a doubt the immediate impetus for this work was the War of the Seven Reductions (i.e, the Guarani War) that pitted the combined forces of Spain and Portugal against the Guarani living in seven Jesuit reductions in Paraguay.

This was, both in the Portuguese and the Latin versions, circulated as a propaganda tool in the diplomatic war that Pombal waged in Europe against the Society of Jesus.

Provenance: Ex-Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with its stamp showing this a deaccessioned duplicate.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only six U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this edition.

 The first edition of Father Ignacio de Paredes's translation of Father Ripalda's Spanish-language catechism into Nahuatl. Both men were Jesuits, but in different centuries and on different continents: Ripalda was born in Spain in 1535 and died in 1618, never having left Europe; Paredes was born in Mexico in 1703 and died there the year this book was published, hailed as one of the most important Nahuatl scholars of the period.

Beristain describes Paredes as being “outstanding in the Mexican language.” His volume was intended for use by missionaries, by parish priests, and by Indians: Indeed, there is aprologue intended to persuade Indians in particular to read and learn this catechism.

The volume is illustrated with woodcut arms on the verso of the second title-page and bears many woodcut initials and tailpieces throughout This copy retains Ortuño's engraved frontispiece (often missing) of St. Francis.

Binding: A very interesting contemporary Mexican sprinkled calf binding, probably by a “provincial” binder. Covers with a single gilt-roll border having a modest corner device in each corner, that tool reused to form a four-part center design on each cover; same gilt-roll used on spine to accent the slightly raised bands and form spine compartments, one of these compartments with a spine-label and one having the covers' corner device gilt-tooled at its center. Board edges also with a gilt-roll design; all edges green. Highly unusual endpapers of a pattern in blue and red resembling images of strings in string theory: This is the first time we have ever seen this pattern.

 Garcia Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 56; Viñaza 341; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2286; Palau 269110; Medina, Mexico, 4500; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 210–211; Sabin 71488; Leclerc 2334; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2891. Binding as above, in good condition; light offsetting from it to early and late leaves. A few small areas of discoloration where candle wax spilled on a page, and a bit of other light toning; p. 135 with “Per Omnia Secula Seculorum” neatly written in bottom margin. Very good. (34611)

Important Biography of aScholar of theTarascan & Matlaltzinga Languages

 Second edition (first was Mexico, 1664) of the standard biography of Father Basalenque (1577–1651), the Provincial of the Augustinians in Michoacan and the author of Arte de la lengua tarasca, the best colonial-era grammar of the Tarascan (Purépecha) language, and of Historia de la Provincia de San Nicolás de Tolentino de Michoacán, del Orden de N.P.S. Agustín, the respected history of his order in Michoacan. He was also an accomplished student of the Matlatltzinga language, leaving unpublished (until the 20th century) several manuscripts.

This work discusses his humility, obedience to the Agustinian rule and vows, and in part his work among the native population.

This second edition additionally contains Lucas Centeno's compilation of the documents relating to the reinterment of Fr. Basalenque's remains in the Convento de Santa María de Gracia in Valladolid (now Morelia), Mexico.

Stewart, Philemon. A holy, sacred, and divine roll and book; from the Lord God of Heaven, to the inhabitants of Earth: revealed in the United Society at New Lebanon, County of Columbia, State of New-York, United States of America. Canterbury, N.H.: United Society, 1843. 8vo. vii, 222, [3] pp., [2] ff., 223–403, [3] pp.$675.00

Click the interior images for enlargements.

 First edition of this famous book of Shaker revelations, printed and bound by a Shaker institution. As was the case with the Book of Mormon, the Sacred Roll and Book was an attempt to add to the scriptural canon but met much less success. The Shaker Bible begins with a proclamation signed in type by Philemon Stewart, a member of the New Lebanon village, attesting that the text was dictated to him by a “Holy Angel” on 4 May 1842. Interestingly, the angel's introduction contains specific instructions regarding reprinting and dissemination of the book — ministers were “required” to keep a copy in their pulpits and Boards of Foreign Missions were to print translated copies “sufficient to circulate into all foreign nations.”

The second part (pp. 267–403), which contains its own title-page, is a collection of testimonies by “inspired writers,” or Shakers professing their faith in the book's divine source.

“Read and understand all ye in mortal clay,” exhorts the title-page — “Received by the church of this communion, and published in union with the same.”

Provenance: In the library of Colgate Rochester Divinity School; inscription on front free endpaper “To be returned to Amelia G. Mace, Office.”

 Sabin 32664, 79708; and 90701.5 for revised collation. Contemporary sheep, recently rebacked in plain calf with gilt-ruled bands and gilt-stamped green leather title-label. Ex-library copy, with rubber-stamp on all paper edges and p. [1]; rubber-stamped five-digit number at base of p. [iii]; inscription on front free endpaper in blue ink (see above); and faint traces of a librarian's penciling at inner margin of p. [iii] and verso of title-page. Small bookseller's ticket at lower outer corner of rear pastedown. Some foxing, especially to endpapers; offsetting from leather affecting title-page and following page, at edges; very good condition. (24495)

Ward, William. Farewell letters to a few friends in Britain and America, on returning to Bengal, in 1821. New York: E. Bliss & E. White, 1821. 12mo. 250 pp.$275.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 Ward (1769–1823) was a printer and a missionary in Serampore, in the Bengal region of India. He learned printing in Derby, England, and in 1799 went to the Danish settlement in Serampore where he printed and supervised the printing of translations of the scriptures intoBengali, Tamil, and more than 20 other languages. He somehow also found time to preach and do other missionary work.

Health concerns forced him to leave India in 1818, but he returned in 1821. During his years away he lectured and travelled in the U.S. and England, raising money for his mission.

The present collection of letters first appeared in London in 1821 and this is its first American edition. His letters have much to say about his work and the native population; he is acutely aware ofthe position and treatment of women and in more than one letter addresses the issue.

Provenance: The Rochester Divinity School, which in the 19th century trained more than a few noteworthy missionaries to India.

 Shoemaker 7568. Original boards covered in blue-green paper; rebacked in the style of the era. Ex-library with 19th-century stamp on title and librarian's pencilling on verso of same. Foxing throughout. Uncut and partially unopened: a good, solid copy. (34989)

Wilson, William, ed. & illus. A missionary voyage to the southern Pacific Ocean, performed in the years 1796, 1797, 1798, in the ship Duff, commanded by Captain James Wilson. Compiled from journals of the officers and the missionaries; and illustrated with maps, charts, and views ... London: Pr. by S. Gosnell for T. Chapman, 1799. 4to (28.5 cm, 11.25"). [12], c, 420, [12] pp.; 7 fold. maps, 6 plts.$2000.00

Click the images for enlargements.

 First edition. This account of a mission to Polynesia and Tahiti (funded by the London Missionary Society) supplies, it must be said, much more by way of the missionary travellers' interested observations of lands and people's exotic to them than it does reports of the proselytizations they pursued; it was compiled by chief mate William Wilson from his own journals and those of Captain James Wilson. Dr. Thomas Haweis, co-founder of the London Missionary Society, edited the work and the Rev. Samuel Greatheed provided (anonymously) the “Preliminary discourse; containing a geographical and historical account of the islands where missionaries have settled, and of others with which they are connected.” The Hill catalogue says, “The narrative is fresh, although sometimes naive, and provides a glimpse of everyday life on the islands that the mariner or naturalist didn't consider worth reporting.” There is a most interesting Appendix, also, canvassing everything from native dress to houses to dances to cookery to canoes to marriage and the place of women to funeral customs — not forgetting human sacrifice and sports.

The volume is illustrated with six plates and seven oversized, folding maps, and includes an extensive list of subscribers. An inferior, less expensive edition appeared in the same year, printed by Gillet; the present example is sometimes identified as the Gosnell edition to distinguish it from the Gillet production.

 ESTC T87461; Hill, Pacific Voyages, 1894; Sabin 49480. Contemporary reverse sheep, framed and panelled in blind, spine with leather title-label; leather peeling at extremities, front joint repaired and back one starting from head, spine with label rubbed and two compartments discolored. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape; front free endpaper lacking. Front pastedown with institutional bookplates; dedication leaf with pressure-stamp in upper margin and rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Title-page and dedication with offsetting to margins; title-page with small hole not touching text. First map foxed, with tears along two folds; sixth map with jagged tear along one inner corner; other maps lightly foxed. Occasional stray small spots of staining and some offsetting from plates onto opposing pages; a few page edges slightly ragged. In sum, in fact, a sound, clean, and pleasant volume. (19603)